CHAPTER XX.

VENETIAN TRAITS AND CHARACTERS.


On a small canal, not far from the railroad station, the gondoliers show
you a house, by no means notable (except for the noble statue of a knight,
occupying a niche in one corner), as the house of Othello. It was once the
palace of the patrician family Moro, a name well known in the annals of
the Republic, and one which, it has been suggested, misled Shakespeare
into the invention of a Moor of Venice. Whether this is possibly the fact,
or whether there is any tradition of a tragic incident in the history of
the Moro family similar to that upon which the play is founded, I do not
know; but it is certain that the story of Othello, very nearly as
Shakespeare tells it, is popularly known in Venice; and the gondoliers
have fixed upon the Casa Moro in question as the edifice best calculated
to give satisfaction to strangers in search of the True and the Memorable.
The statue is happily darkened by time, and thus serves admirably to
represent Othello's complexion, and to place beyond the shadow of a doubt
the fact of his residence in the house. Indeed, what can you say to the
gondolier, who, in answer to your cavils, points to the knight, with the
convincing argument, "There is his statue!"

One day I was taken to see this house, in company with some friends, and
when it had been victoriously pointed out, as usual, we asked meekly, "Who
was Othello?"